“IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO STILL BE A WOMAN IN THE KITCHEN…”

Eleonora Galasso, Blenheim Literary Festival, Italian, Food

******* The BBC may have lost ‘The Great British Bake Off’ but all can be forgiven - trust me - if it races to sign Italian food writer Eleonora Galasso to a five-year (minimum) contract…
Because Nigella Lawson is, after today’s event, frankly yesterday’s news.
Galasso beats at her own game, hands down, with more wit, style, intelligence and exquisite intimacy than is maybe healthy before the 9.00pm watershed. And she does it all so effortlessly with no pretence, affectation, artifice or masquerade. She is, quite simply, a tour de force of passion, insight, practicality and enlightenment.
Sporting a stunning white suit from the catwalks of Chanel, she demonstrated her culinary prowess without ever once suffering a speck or smear of olive oil.
Miraculous.
While at the same maintaining a conversation with her audience that was, well… breathless.
Appearing at the festival to promote her latest book, ‘As The Romans Do: Authentic and Reinvented Recipes from the Eternal City’, she stormed the event, leaving the women, as well as the men, to emerge 60 minutes later, eye balls protruding, mouths dry, and on legs distinctly - but deliciously - unsteady.
About 230 per cent undiluted Italian, she could have asked for the head of Donald Trump and had it delivered 30 minutes later, roasted but cold.
Unmissable.